Man this has been one upside down crazy year for figs in my climate! Too much rain and not enough high heat. Well, I'm glad this year's fig season is over! I'm resting and enjoying the holidays with my family. My vacation started last week. It feels good just to sleep in and no dog waking me up wanting a BIO break!

Today, as I sipped some coffee, I checked on my winterized trees in my basement, GH, and garage. They all look fine. I watered some and repotted some rare bare root babies. Back in October, I played around with some cutings. I placed them inside a hot box. Man those sucker are rooting like crazy! Ha! I think I'll leave them and see how they do after Christmas It's been a while since I played late with cuttings. I couldn't play in Spring and Summer. I was too busy potting up, picking figs, making jam and chasing raccoons.

Again, this year was a mess in my climate for figs. Even though, it rained like crazy and the heat wasn't that good, I still picked 10 and 20 lbs of figs for many days. I got a lot of trees. Looking back at my notes, and a few pictures, there were a few figs that were an 8, aka "freaking great"! They are listed below. This just means the trees below produced a handful of great figs. In a better season, these could all be 10+ pass out good figs! There were many others that did fruit for me but they either soured or did not taste that great this year. These here were great but some would make you pass out with just one bite! These were an 8+ in my climate of 2013.

Pastiliere
Zemblas Black
Tilsbury Turkey
O'Rourke
Improved Celeste
Mega Celeste
LSU Tiger
Portogalio
Hardy Chicago
Brown Turkey Not!
Cato Bella
Weeping Fig
Smith
Celeste
Marseilles Black
Peter's Honey
Main Street Purple
Black Greek
Tacoma Violet
LSU Gold
LSU Purple
Brown Turkey
Bayenfeige Violetta
Ischia Black
Ischia White
Gino's Black
Strawberry
Tarantella
Ronde de Bordeaux
La Goccia d'Or
Chico Strawberry
LSU Black
Scott's Black
187-15
Alma
Marseillas White
Big Al
Salem Dark
Adriano
Black Mission
Pananas Purple
Kathleen Black
GM#9
GM#142
Improved Brown Turkey
Marva Silka
Sal's
Negronne
White Greek RK
Long d'Aout
Cartegena Negra
Soudai
Verte
LSu Tiger
Florea
Stella
Black Triana
Malta Black
Brown Greek
Dark Portuguese
Hunt
LSU Champagne
Nero
Brogotto Nero
Sweet George
Beall
Ventura
Willow Street
Toni's Brown Italian
Excel
Adriatic JH
Vasilka Sika
Madeline deux Saison
Murcina
BC#93
Barnisotte
Aubique Petite
Dwarf Black Fig
GM#11
Fortiss
Violet Sepor
Latturula
Ruby 3

I'm hoping 2014 is a hotter year like 2009 and 2010 was. In those 2 years we had an early summer....90 degree temps in March! I know I'm missing a few others. But this is a start.

Dennis,

That is a looong list of 8+s ! It seems it includes almost everything I have heard of.
Can you tell which figs were below 8 and 7 ?

Great Collection, let me know which are the +10's.....Kind of limited on space....need names to shoot for....Thanks.  Looking for Great Looking Black Figs.....So Kathleen Black is Good...???

Below 8? Ok...

Panachee
Black Jack
Georgia White
Lemon
White Triana
Atreano
Conadria
Violete de Bordeaux
TN Green
Pane Vito White
Los Lunas
Morley
Lyndhurst White

too name a few.

Panache is at least a 9 here :)

Where does Italian 258 fall on your list?

Panache has been a 10 in my book......Dennis maybe is in a cool climate...LOL

I wouldn't have enough place to host them all.
Man, such a collection ! Good "job" !
You have to be picking and making jam each morning or ?
Can you tell if they all have the same age ? This is important when comparing them.
Which ones where the most productives ?
With lets say 10 fruits per tree, you should be able to make a ranking in between them all, with some additional remarks of course .
Perhaps a ranking per color - as light colored skin figs tend to have an harder skin.

With "so much" rain ( as per your saying), didn't panache-figs explode ? A neighbor has a tree, and the only one I saw that was ripe was like exploded with all flesh exposed.

Thanks for your report. Hopefully next year, I'll be able to report on five different varieties .

And if I may ask ... Do you have a digital camera or a smartphone ... You could have made photos of the figs just for fun - before getting fig-sick... and we could have a look :) at the figs .

Dennis, that is a impressive list.

If you think you had a problem last growing season, with to much rain, and not enough heat, try growing figs in New England. That is our fig growing season every year.

I'm surprise to see that Bayernfeige Violetta made your 8+ list, for last year. It was a totally wipe out for me here, this last growing season.

It simply could not handle the three months of unending cool, wet spring weather we had, last season. Which was even more cooler and wetter then usual.

Which fig was your earliest fig from that group?

Thanks for the info.

Bob @ T. Pine

Dennis, very nice. I am surprised that Lyndhurst White was so bad for you since our climates are similar.

Thanks for sharing this info.

Armando, KB is good. You do have to pinch it and pat it's head before figs will ripen. HA! Panachee is an excellent fig. But the figs will explode and sour when it rains or too much humidity is near. But I won't get rid of my trees. In a perfect heated year, they are excellent!

Mike, I think I have 8 or 10 Lynhurst White fig trees. My trees are only about 2 yrs old BUT at an early age, they are very prolific. I believe, this cultivar takes years before the best tasting figs are developed....like Peter's Honey. The figs are drop dead goregous but not much flavor at a young age. My trees puts out lots of figs but the coons wouldn't even eat them when ripe. I know they will get better though.

Bob, BV is an excellent tasting fig! It's very sweet and will make you slap your knee and laugh out loud with just one bite! This is definately one tree I will keep. I only got 5 or 6 figs from one tree last year and the same from another. I showed a friend my collection and gave his wife one ripe BV fig. It was her first fresh fig. She ate the fig and the stem! She said that fig was sweet and never knew figs were that good. Of course I gave them a lesson on figs and the different cultivars. We picked some Atreano, Black Greek and Zembalas Black figs. She was surprised how different they all taste. My earliest fig this year was Florea and Purple Magnolia.

Jdsfrance, I do have a digital camera and smartphone. I'm pushin back on posting a lot of pictures here. I'm working on a fig web site that will have data from my trees and lots of pictures. I'll make it public at the end of the month. I'm not trying to compete with this site or any others. It's just going to be figs in my collection and tips and techiques I've tested and tried. I'll even have some videos. Yes, once the weather got nice and warm, I'd pick 10lb+ of figs. The birds got some. The coons got a lot. The coons broke 2 trees and I killed 3 large coons. After I killed those 3, in one night, the raids stopped. There were days, I would not pick figs and many fell to the ground because they were spoiled. I took figs to work and let my coworkers feast. Some wanted more and they got more upon request. I made lots of jam. Those that know me would order my jam by the case. Today, I have 9 cases of jam left.

I left a few off the 8+ list. Vista was a 9. Ok, back to shopping and cleaning up the house and making dinner before the MRS comes home.

Dennis - that's a great idea on your website.  I'm looking forward to seeing it up and running!

Do you sell and ship your fig Jam? :)

Which figs from your list do you use to make your jam and is it because you have a excess of certain ones or are they based on taste?
Richard

I'm always surprised you don't sell cuttings, Dennis.

Calling Dennis - see post #5 re: Italian #258

great stuff.
i get am getting into trouble when i say a fig is better than the other. that because i propagte  10 of it after..

Greedy me

Harvey, in great weather conditions, I-258 is an 11! This year....it was a 7.5. There were so many others that were better.

Dennis, I have a question about one of the varieties you listed as better than an 8

The Tarentella fig has caught my attention because it is from Taranto, Italy.  I grew up in a PA town named Tarentum - the Latin name for the same town.  It is available from Joe Morle's website, but there is not much info on it here on the forum.  I found a post by Rafed mentioning it here last year, and one member said it split badly in rain.  Can you give any info on how it has done for you overall, growth characteristics, breba quality, etc??    Thanks!

Panache, like Tena, is not a recommended variety on the East Coast, Armando.  You're doing good to get a good Panache in NC.

2013 was so bad here that parthenocarpic,figs like Ischia Black ,Kadota ,Southern Brown Turkey,and Noire de Barbentane, behaved like cauducous figs,never got ripe and produced inedible fruits dry inside.
They behaved like Pastiliere,and Celeste when they drop figs with no reason.
I am sure they have a reason for dropping after this year.
It is the specific Summer climate in that year that is the reason,coupled with low level adaptability to adverse conditions of cultivar in itself.
Any cultivar that produced decent number of ripe figs,of decent quality, in 2013,on east coast,is an adapted to bad climate cultivar and will produce a good harvest in most continental US.
If fruits were edible in 2013,they would have been delicious in 2010!

let's hope next yr is better.

Herman, Connecticut was like your growing area in New Jersey. It was so bad here with the three months of cold rain, that never stopped. That even Concord seedless grapes never got any bigger then the size of peas. I thought the cold wet spring would never turn to summer.

But, Danny's Delight was again an absolutely outstanding fig. Plus, Sal's EL was so close that I would have to rank it also as number one. Sal's EL, has already been selected by Paul Tracesky as the winner of his 1990's fig evaluation test results, for Connecticut. Each year, I understand more and more why Paul chose Sal's EL, for his location here in Connecticut.

I'm still trying to figure out whether it was my imagination or not. But, I think the three months of a cold, wet spring, actually made Danny's Delight, taste even better then last year.

It not only was able to handle the three months of cold rain, but the cold rain did not keep it from producing a large crop of good sized figs. Plus, none of it's fruit split or spoiled. 

I'm really eager to compare Danny's Delight to your rain tolerant Nero 600M.
Were you able to draw any conclusions on how Nero 600M performed, last growing season?

By the way Herman, how did your Hardy Hartford do, this last growing season?
Here it ripened sweet fruit. But, the cold rain reduced the crop load.

Bob @ T. Pine Connecticut - zone 5.b/6a  

 

Bob, Hardy Hartford was an 8 here. I forgot to add it. I picked HH figs up till early November. That tree is a winner hands down!

So Bob, your Danny's Delight.....is it the green one or the brown one?

Dennis, it's the brown one. Early, on we sent Herman pictures of fruit, and leaf. He identified it as the one that Hartman once sold as Danny's Delight.

Even though we had a very cold wet spring, that rained for what seems like almost three months. Danny's Delight was still, simply outstanding. We planted from one plant to three fig plants of each variety of fig plants we're testing. If I had know what I know now about Danny's Delight, I would have planted ten plants of Danny's Delight.

I'm glad to hear that you like Hardy Hartford. It has never failed to produce a crop of figs since we have been testing it here. Nor, have I ever seen the mother plant in Hartford not have a crop.

Hardy Hartford has a taste profile similar to Sal's EL, and Marseilles Black VS.

Bob @ T. Pine - Zone 5b/6a Connecticut

Dennis, I think it is Pane Vino instead of Pan Vito. Jon had a typo on his list a while back and I asked him about it. Bass found the original tree behind an abandoned restaurant.